AMSTERDAM, December 13 /PRNewswire/ --

- The Scopus Affiliation Identifier Phase 1 Facilitates Faster
Decision-Making

Scopus(R), the world's largest abstract and citation database of
peer-reviewed literature, today announced that a sought after literature
research tool, the Scopus Affiliation Identifier Phase 1 will be launched in
January. This new feature will speed up the search process by enabling users
to find all the documents belonging to a specific organization. Doing so will
save users valuable time which can be better invested in performing the
actual research analysis.

The Scopus Affiliation Identifier Phase 1 is a unique tool which
automatically identifies and matches an organization with all its research
output. Scopus is the first to offer its customers this organizational
matching functionality across its entire database of over 15,000 peer
reviewed journals. This will be welcome news for deans, faculty heads,
researchers and funding bodies who understand just how difficult and
time-consuming this task has been up to now.

Using a combination of sophisticated algorithms and a comprehensive
knowledge base, the Scopus Affiliation Identifier Phase 1 will quicken the
rate at which data can be collated for research performance measurement at
the institutional level. The feature automatically matches the multiple name
variants attributed to an organization. This is extremely useful where
several name variants of an organization may exist or may be recorded
differently by publishing authors. One such an example is the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology where articles found in Scopus and published by
authors belonging to this institute carry more than 1,700 name variants.
Other reasons for these numbers of variations can be attributed to
organizations changing their name, having similar names, or they may merge or
separate. This can make it challenging to clearly identify a single
organization's complete body of work.

"Up until now we have had to employ personnel to carry out this mammoth
task. It is both a slow and expensive process. The Scopus Affiliation
Identifier Phase 1 produces the same results in significantly less time. This
not only helps us to reduce the number of staff needed but also allows us to
focus on research analysis rather than data collection and filtering
activities." says David Clay is Deputy Head of Academic Liaison and Finance
at the University of Liverpool. The Scopus Affiliation Identifier Phase 1
makes it easier for him to evaluate his own institution and others.

Users will benefit immediately from the initial version of the Scopus
Affiliation Identifier Phase 1, available in January. The next phase,
scheduled for release in the first half of 2008, will offer users enhanced
functionalities. Scopus is actively soliciting feedback from individual
organizations in order to enhance the data clarity.

"We are delighted to be able to introduce the Scopus Affiliation
Identifier Phase 1 to the market," says Niels Weertman, Director Product
Management Scopus. "We've invested heavily in developing a feature that will
deliver significant time and cost benefits to our users. Ultimately it will
help deans, chancellors and faculty heads make resource allocation and
strategic planning decisions more efficiently."

For further information on Scopus or the Scopus Affiliation Identifier
Phase 1, please visit: http://www.info.scopus.com/affiliationidentifier.

For feedback on the Scopus Affiliation Identifier, please
contact: affiliationfeedback@scopus.com.

About Scopus

Covering the world's research literature, Scopus is the largest abstract 
and citation database of peer-reviewed literature and quality Web sources 
with smart tools to track, analyze and visualize research. Scopus is designed 
and developed with over 500 users and librarians internationally. Its unique
database contains abstracts and references from over 15,000 peer-reviewed
journals from 4,000 publishers worldwide, ensuring broad interdisciplinary
coverage. In addition, Scopus not only offers users citation information
about the articles covered, but also integrates Web and patent searches
directly from its clean and simple interface. Direct links to full-text
articles, library resources and other applications like reference management
software, make Scopus quicker, easier and more comprehensive to use than any
other literature research tool. For more information about Scopus please
visit http://www.info.scopus.com.

About Elsevier

Elsevier is a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and
medical information products and services. Working in partnership with the
global science and health communities, Elsevier's 7,000 employees in over 70
offices worldwide publish more than 2,000 journals and 1,900 new books per
year, in addition to offering a suite of innovative electronic products, such
as ScienceDirect (http://www.sciencedirect.com/), MD Consult (
http://www.mdconsult.com/), Scopus (http://www.info.scopus.com/),
bibliographic databases and online reference works.

Elsevier (http://www.elsevier.com/) is a global business headquartered in
Amsterdam, The Netherlands and has offices worldwide. Elsevier is part of
Reed Elsevier Group plc (http://www.reedelsevier.com/), a world-leading
publisher and information provider. Operating in the science and medical,
legal, education and business-to-business sectors, Reed Elsevier provides
high-quality and flexible information solutions to users, with increasing
emphasis on the Internet as a means of delivery. Reed Elsevier's ticker
symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and
ENL (New York Stock Exchange).

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